Sanitary napkins and related disposable absorbent articles that provide for the collection of menses and other bodily discharges are well known in the art. It has long been an object of those designing sanitary napkins to make them such that they readily intercept menses upon discharge from the wearer. Such sanitary napkins have long had a means, typically pressure sensitive adhesive, for affixing the sanitary napkin to the undergarment of the wearer and maintaining the sanitary napkin in the proper position to intercept the discharged menses.
However, the undergarment may not, in fact, move in concert with the body of the wearer. Specifically, the crotch of the undergarment of the wearer may not remain in constant registration with and position relative to the vaginal opening. Also, as the wearer walks, runs, sits, etc., the sanitary napkin may not flex and twist with the undergarment, thereby stressing the means for affixing the sanitary napkin to the undergarment of the wearer. In fact, the sanitary napkin may be detached from the undergarment.
Several attempts have been made to provide a sanitary napkin which may be attached to the undergarment of the wearer and also maintain the constant position with respect to the body of the wearer. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,130 issued Jan. 10, 1984 to DesMarais discloses a sanitary napkin having decoupled components joined to one another at the transverse or end edges.
Other attempts have been made in the art to provide a sanitary napkin which maintains contact of the topsheet with the body of the wearer. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,380, issued Feb. 4, 1989 to Lassen et al. discloses a three dimensionally shaped sanitary protecting device that claims to readily fit and align itself with the wearer's anatomy. However, the structure of Lassen does not provide the aforementioned independence of movement between the body of the wearer and the undergarment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,906 issued Apr. 16, 1991 to Osborn, III et al. discloses a sanitary napkin having a topsheet and an absorbent core. The topsheet and core are decoupled from the backsheet of the sanitary napkin allowing the topsheet and backsheet to be separated from one another in the Z-direction. However, the decoupled topsheet and core of Osborn does not provide the desired body conformance.
Accordingly, there is a need for a disposable absorbent article having improved body fit that can be simply and economically manufactured.
Additionally, there is a need for a sanitary napkin capable of reliably achieving an improved body-fitting profile.